Tag: Arkansas
Woman sentenced for posing as sheriff’s deputy to free boyfriend from jail
An Arkansas woman who posed as a California sheriff’s deputy to break her boyfriend out of jail has been sentenced.
Maxine Feldstein, 30, pleaded guilty on Monday to several charges, including criminal impersonation, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but half her sentence was suspended by the judge, KFSM-TV reported.
In July, Feldstein posed as deputy “L. Kershaw,” with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, at the Washington County Jail, and presented forged documents to fool those at the jail into freeing her boyfriend.
Boyfriend Nicholas Lowe reportedly told Feinstein to pose as a deputy from the sheriff’s office, the station reported, citing court documents. Lowe told his girlfriend she should tell the jail staff that the sheriff’s office was “having issues with overcrowding and all low-priority extraditions have been suspended.”
Two days later, a real Ventura County sheriff’s deputy called the jail to let them know he was on his way to pick up Lowe, which is when jail officials realized what happened.
The couple was arrested in Fayetteville about a month after the incident.
In court earlier this week, Feldstein also pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal impersonation, forgery and third-degree escape. In February, Lowe pleaded guilty to third-degree escape and was given a year in prison, with credit for time served, and will be suspended for five years once he’s released.
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Washington County Detention Center
Teen pleads guilty to trying to stealing plane so he could attend concert
TEXARKANA, Ark. — A 19-year-old Arkansas man has pleaded guilty to trying to steal a commercial plane so he could fly to Chicago to attend a rap concert.
The Texarkana Gazette reports that Zemarcuis Scott of Texarkana pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted theft of property and commercial burglary, and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Authorities have said Scott was found July 4 inside the cockpit of an American Eagle jet at Texarkana Regional Airport and that he had hoped to fly to an out-of-state concert.
He has no training as a pilot. Police have said he told investigators he thought piloting the plane would involve little more than pushing buttons and pulling levers.
In December, he was found mentally competent to stand trial.
Authorities say the 44-seat jet wasn’t damaged.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/29/teen-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-plane-so-he-could-attend-concert/
Teen babysitters accused of tormenting baby with Taser (News clip with actual video)
Three teen babysitters are accused of tormenting a baby girl in their care with a Taser in videos posted to Snapchat, according to reports.
Police in Conway, Arkansas, said the teen girls were arrested for child endangerment Monday in connection to the horrifying footage, news station KXXV reported.
In one clip, one of the babysitters reportedly pretended to prod the 1-year-old girl with a Taser as the child screamed.
Another video showed a teen slapping the baby in the back of the head. “She’s a bully but I’m dying,” the clip was captioned.
The baby’s mother, Elyssia Watkins, said she’s disturbed by the footage of her young daughter.
“I couldn’t even stay at work today,” Watkins said. “I just keep thinking about it. Why do they think it’s a laughing matter?”
The babysitters — whose ages range from 15 to 17 years old — appeared Tuesday in Faulkner County Court on child endangerment charges.
“They do need to go to jail, but I hope someone really talks to them and they get some counseling,” Watkins told KXXV.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/12/teen-babysitters-accused-of-tormenting-baby-with-taser/
Day care worker caught on video abusing children
A day care worker in Arkansas was arrested after she was caught on camera aggressively handling two young children, police said.
McKenzie Howell, 19, of Mabelvale, was arrested Monday on two felony counts of first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor after a caller told police her 21-month-old son was abused on June 29 at Kid’s Academy in Bryant, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
Howell, a class instructor at the facility, was arrested after investigators spoke with witnesses and reviewed footage from security cameras at the location. A woman who also works at the day care said she reviewed portions of video surveillance that showed her son being abused before she contacted the Child Abuse Hotline, which referred her to police.
The woman told police that Howell grabbed her son “aggressively off the ground” before trying to put him in a chair near a wall. But Howell dropped the boy, causing his head to apparently hit a wall before falling to the floor, according to a police report.
Howell later picked the boy up again and put him in a chair. No bruises or other marks were found on his body, police said.
Another colleague at the facility said she also saw Howell push another girl into a wall and forcefully pull the child’s arm.
The second colleague who witnessed Howell’s alleged abuse then told the facility’s manager of the incidents. Howell, who had been previously warned not to be “verbally aggressive” with the children, was then sent home and told not to return until further notice, police said.
Video obtained by KATV shows an employee at the day care facility sitting on a classroom floor in front of six young children when a worker identified by police as Howell is seen dragging a girl on the floor by the legs in front of her.
“This next part, I’m not going to lie, is hard to watch,” Bryant Police Department Sgt. Todd Crowson told the station. “You know, she just looked angry in the video. I’m not real sure why.”
Howell is also seen in other footage picking up a girl by the shoulders and throwing her into a chair. In another instance, Howell grabbed a girl by her shoulders and pushed her back against a wall while she sat on the floor, causing the toddler to immediately grab her shoulder and cry, the video shows.
“Kids can be tough to deal with at times, but you just got to have the right temperament for that job and some people, that type of job is not for them,” Crowson said. “If you’re a worker who works around kids and you feel like you’re having a bad day, maybe you should take a day off.”
At least one child has been removed from the facility since Howell’s arrest, KATV reports. She has since been released from custody at a jail in Saline County after posting $5,000 bond, jail records show.
Howell’s arrest is the latest complaint in connection with the day care facility. In January, state officials launched an investigation regarding its staff-to-child ratio, the Democrat-Gazette reported. An internal report in January showed that day care officials fired an employee for not being able to account for all of the children in her care after two children reportedly ran out when a parent opened a door, according to the newspaper.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/07/10/day-care-worker-caught-on-video-abusing-children/
Arkansas Man Charged With Murder After Toddler’s Decomposing Body Found in Tupperware; Child’s Mom Also Arrested
An Arkansas man is accused of killing an infant and hiding the child’s body in a closet in his Fayetteville home for about two weeks, according to police.
Tyler Hobbs, 21, was arrested in connection with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. Maria Giron-Molina, 21, is the boy’s mother, and she too faces an abuse of a corpse charge, according to KTLA sister station KFSM in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Hobbs said he choked and shook the 1-year-old boy on Oct. 15th because the toddler wouldn’t calm down, according to a preliminary arrest report. Hobbs said the boy hit and scratched him and then he blacked out.
When Hobbs came to, the boy was dead and didn’t respond to CPR, the station reported.
Hobbs stated he was high on marijuana, “freaked out,” and put the boy inside a Tupperware container. He then wrapped the container in blankets and put it in a closet inside his bedroom, according to the Fayetteville Police Department.
The body was in an “advanced state of decomposition” by the time the remains were found, police said, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Giron-Molina told investigators that she saw blood on the sheets, changed them and put the bloody ones on the closet floor, after Hobbs told her the boy fell at the park.
She also told investigators she was afraid of calling police after her son’s death because she didn’t want her other children taken away, according to the report.
Police said the couple planned to give her other two children to relatives before contacting authorities.
Hobbs turned himself in Monday and police found the boy’s body later that day at the couple’s home on North Leverett Avenue, according to police.
Police said the boy’s body showed signs of bruising near his jaw, eyebrow and eye.
Hobbs and Giron-Molina were being held Tuesday at the Washington County Detention Center on bonds of $750,000 and $500,000. The pair have hearings set for Dec. 4 in Washington County Circuit Court.
Newborn Girl Found With About 100 Rodent Bites Undergoes Facial Reconstruction Surgery; Arkansas Parents Arrested
Warning: Story contains disturbing content
Two Arkansas parents were arrested after their newborn baby was bitten by rodents around 100 times and had to undergo facial reconstruction surgery Monday, police said.
Charles Elliott, 18, and Erica Shyrock, 19, each face a charge of endangering the welfare of a minor after the child was rushed to the hospital Sunday, according to television station KARK in Little Rock.
The station reports that an emergency room nurse told investigators that the 15-day-old baby girl suffered bite wounds on her arms, fingers, hands and face. Police told the station that the baby had a one-inch wound on her forehead so deep that her skull was visible.
Police spoke with Elliott’s mother, the child’s grandmother, who said he told her a mouse bit the baby and that he was worried about losing custody. Elliott’s mother allegedly told him he should take the girl to a hospital anyway.
Investigators then spoke with Shyrock, who said she woke up to the baby screaming on Sunday morning and found her covered in blood, according to KARK. Elliott gave a similar statement, adding that when he went to clean up the blood, he saw rat footprints in the crib, authorities said.
Shyrock told investigators that she knew rats were in their home, but that she and Elliott hadn’t done anything to solve the problem, according to police.
When authorities searched the home, they found a bassinet with bloody rat footprints and a baby’s hat and blanket soaked in blood, the station reported.
A doctor at Arkansas Children’s Hospital said the baby girl suffered severe skin deconstruction “from rat feeding,” and that it would have taken hours for the injuries to occur, according to local television station KSLA. The doctor concluded that the parents were either incapacitated or not present when the rodent or rodents continuously bit the girl.
Elliott and Shyrock are being held in the Columbia County jail in Arkansas.
Arkansas Mother of 4 Builds Home for Family From Scratch Using YouTube Tutorials
With two bad marriages behind her and debt that came with them, Cara Brookins, an Arkansas mother of four, needed a place to stay for her and her four kids.
But Brookins, who writes young adult novels for a living, didn’t have the money to hire builders. So she built one by herself — using YouTube tutorials.
“Things can get a little expensive when you are escaping an abusive relationship and have four children,” Brookins explained.
Brookins’ initial intention was to buy a home. But she found they were either too expensive or just too small. Then she realized that YouTube is a great tool for how-to’s.
So after careful research, Brookins brought an acre of land in Bryant, Arkansas, a suburb of Little Rock, and began building.
She started in 2008, watching videos in the evening, making a list of the tools she’d need. She tallied the cost of supplies for her dream home: $130,000.
So she sold a small property she owned.
Her children, Hope, Drew and Jada and Roman — ages 17 to 2 at the time — helped along the way.
“My oldest son, Drew, helped me draw the blueprint to get approved by the city,” Brookins said.
Brookins and her children worked on the house for nine months. Jada would haul water from the neighbor’s pond to make a mix to help lay the foundation. Drew helped move lumber. Hope would cook for everyone.
“The entire process brought our family closer together and we learned that nothing is impossible. We found new hope,” said Brookins.
But all the YouTube learning can’t fill all the holes in one’s knowledge. So Brookins enlisted the help of a friendly firefighter who had past building experience. She would pay him $25 an hour, when she could afford it, to help her with some of the tasks.
Finally, on March 31, 2009, the family moved into its 3,500-square-foot house. Brookins called it Inkwell Manor because, she said, she wanted a place where she could write and one that reflected her passion for books and writing.
The house has five bedrooms and a library.
The experience is now the subject of a book, “Rise: How a House Built a Family,” which comes out January 24. Brookins said she hopes the book inspires others to never think small.
“I never intended to write a book. I was ashamed. But I think it is important to shift your perspective on any negative situation and do something big,” she said.
“Never think of your situation as a solo journey,” she added. “You can heal and grow together with your family.”
via: http://ktla.com/2017/01/13/arkansas-mother-of-4-builds-home-for-family-from-scratch-using-youtube-tutorials/